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Phoenix Down

I had this very same "tuft" experience with Final Fantasy XIII, and it made me feel like an imbecile for not realizing this through the course of over a decade of engaging with this franchise. I always thought it was some weird failure in the localization of quirky Japanese nonsense. In my defense, the fact that they'd stack into multiple "Phoenix Downs" was what caused the disconnect.

I was wondering if any other Final Fantasy gamers didn't realize this either. A couple of the guys at Giant Bomb definitely had an identical experience. I created a poll in our forums where you can inform me whether I should feel unashamed or if I should whither under the blistering ignominy of my stupidity.

Diplomacy V - Spring 1912

We enter the twelfth year of the War of No Ending. The Franco-German coalition appears to finally be making some strides against the Austro-Italian alliance in the form of a massive, slowly coalescing pincer movement.

France took the Tyrrhenian Sea once again, this time backed by significantly greater force. With military forces crammed into every available sector, we're bound to see some crushed units along this front. In the east, Germany has enveloped Moscow, and it appears that Russia is on the verge of elimination.

The Austro-Italians were not without victory. They crushed yet ANOTHER German army in Tyrolia, retaking that vital province. On the whole, however, they are beginning to be outflanked by the greater industrial capacity of their enemies. Germany is shrugging off what ought to be catastrophic losses with a determined offensive. The German war machine appears to have adopted the Zapp Brannigan "killbot" approach to seeming success. France's navy just keeps coming. This is all compounded by Austria's inability to build new units, as all of his home supply centers are occupied, out of defensive necessity.

It's not impossible, or even improbable, that Austria and Italy could exert superior skill and fortune to turn the tide. What they really need, however, is for the distrust between France and Germany to foment into actual conflict. Barring this, especially with the elimination of the Russian X Factor, we're in for a protracted grind of a war.

As one final note, I'm not certain why Russia switched allegiances yet again. This move just sealed his fate.